Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 117574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 588(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
“Thanks, Carlo.”
“Look at you! You’re a catch.”
“Back at you, man.”
As both men laugh, I barf a little in my both.
“Carlo, I need to talk to you in private,” I gasp out. I’m rapidly losing my mind. Devolving into a total freakout.
Auggie chuckles. “It’s okay, babe. You know I’m not the jealous type—unlike Carlo’s wife. Am I right?”
Carlo laughs. “As rain. You have no idea.”
Auggie returns to me. “So, you don’t have to downplay your history with Carlo to me. I don’t feel threatened by him—other than the fact that the big guy here could clearly break me like a twig. Haha. So, let’s all be friends and talk about this problem of yours that needs fixing . . . in extreme detail.”
Oh my god, Auggie’s painfully clueless! Why is he doing this? Has he had a stroke? Bumped his head? Eaten a magic mushroom?
With a charming smile, Auggie says, “Carlo, in case you have any doubts at all about me being Charlotte’s fiancé, let me put them to rest now. The bar you went to yesterday to look for Charlotte? It was Captain’s. The downtown location. The name of Charlotte’s friend who owns the bar? Tessa. The name of the bouncer you spoke to about Charlotte’s fiancé? That would be Brody.”
“Yep to all of it.”
“Charlotte and I were there on Thursday afternoon, along with my father, to celebrate our engagement.”
Carlo flashes me a snarky look. “Now, how would he know any of those details, if he wasn’t the fiancé the bouncer told me about, eh?” He returns to Auggie with a lopsided grin. “Not that I ever doubted you, though.”
“So, what’s up?” Auggie says. “Tell me everything.”
Carlo leans against a wall. “Well, in a nutshell, my friend, the situation is this: I know your beautiful, cheery fiancée looks like an angel sent from heaven. And to be fair, she is. But this angel of yours did a very bad thing last month. She made a whopper of a mistake, Auggie, and I’m left trying to clean up the mess.”
My heart is exploding. “Can we please take a walk, Carlo? Please. I don’t want to involve Auggie in any of this.”
Carlo snickers and nudges Auggie. “That one hates accepting anyone’s help, especially from a man. She likes her independence.”
“She sure does.”
“But this time,” Carlo says, “trust me on this, Charlotte needs to accept your help, Auggie. Because if we don’t help her fix her mistake, some massive shit could hit the fan for all of us.”
Auggie looks apprehensive. “What, exactly, did Charlotte do?”
“No, Carlo. Please.”
“She took a duffel bag full of cash that belonged to my boss after a flight. Right after we’d landed. And then, she compounded that first mistake by sinking all the money into a condo in Seattle, so it was tied up and she couldn’t hand it right back to me after I tracked her down.”
Auggie looks wary. “How much cash?”
“Sixty grand.”
Auggie whistles. “Holy shit.”
“In my defense,” I blurt, “I’d gotten a text from my good friend in HR during the flight, letting me know I was on a list of people getting the axe the next morning. When I picked up that duffel bag, I was freaking out about losing my job. And it wasn’t like I planned some elaborate heist. The bag had fallen off a luggage cart between the airplane and the line of SUVs being loaded up by Mr. Di Marco’s men. When I grabbed it to bring it over, I noticed what looked like a whole lot of cash through a small hole in the zipper, so, on an impulse, I threw my coat over the bag and high-tailed it out of there. Trust me, I regretted doing it the minute I got into a taxi, but then, once I’d taken it, I didn’t know how to give it back without admitting what I’d done in the first place. So then, when I realized I’d fucked myself, I decided to do what that guy in Ozark always does with his dirty cash: I bought real estate with it, in order to launder it.”
Carlo rolls his eyes and mutters, “Ozark. Do you see what I’m dealing with here, Auggie? That’s like saying ‘I learned to fly a 757 by watching the movie, Airplane!’” He chuckles and shakes his head. “You really complicated things for me, sweetheart. If only you hadn’t tied up the money so fucking fast, I could have said there’d been a mix-up at the airport. I could have said the bag got onto the wrong cart and got put in storage in a sea of other lost luggage.”
“I know I fucked up, Carlo. I haven’t slept a wink since I picked up that stupid bag. But, please, can we not talk about this anymore in front of Auggie? I don’t want to involve him.”